I had the privilege of briefly tweeting this week with some attendees of the ALI Social Media for Government conference in Ottawa. While I’m sure they’ll be blogging like mad about the event, I wanted to share some of the impressions I got on Twitter and what a force of connectivity this tool really is! Also worthy of note: how much social media has already been exploited by Canadian and American governmental agencies. I had no idea.
- Using the tag #ALI, attendees and non-attendees alike were continually jumping into the ongoing Twitter conversation about the event and social media in general
- Typical tweets covered speakers’ topics in realtime, and commented on the speech content or reaction of others in attendance; event logistics and linking to relevant/helpful URLs also dominated the conversation
- Some great speakers came up from the US including Jack Holt of the US Dept. of Defense, who tweeted throughout the conference. The US air force now has a blog: Air Force Live.
- People discussed Dalton McGuinty’s Youtube video about the HPV vaccine. I had a closer look on Youtube, and Dalton has actually posted 43 videos! He films at the Toronto waterfront, on the Go Train, and discusses current issues. No matter what you think of Dalton, I think it’s an honest effort to reach out via social media.
- Other presentations included the Ontario Power Authority’s experience with social media (who knew?) and the state of Virginia’s award-winning use of Youtube.
All in all, I had a unique, though limited, insider’s view of the conference without even attending. I made several new Twitter connections with media-minded professionals in Ontario and really got a feel for the energy and enthusiasm surrounding the use of social media in our government. Incredibly inspiring!
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